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Your Gateway to Music and More from a Christian Perspective Slow down as you approach the gate, and have your change ready.... |
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Since 1996 |
Your Gateway to Music and More from a Christian Perspective Slow down as you approach the gate, and have your change ready.... |
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For Your Consideration Stars: Christopher Guest, Bob Balaban, Ed Begley Jr., Jennifer Coolidge, Paul Dooley, Eugene Levy, Jane Lynch, Michael McKean, Catherine O’Hara, Parker Posey, Harry Shearer and Fred Willard Director: Christopher Guest Scriptwriters: Christopher Guest and Eugene Levy Warner Independent Films Running Time: 85 minutes Not Rated (but could be PG 13) For Christopher Guest fans (Waiting for Guffman) the term “mockumentary” is familiar. Here we go again, and this time Guest skewers Hollywood and Academy Award nominations. The term “for your consideration” refers to promotional material that goes out to the press prior to Oscar time. The extent of the material depends on the budget of the film company. It’s supposed to be informational, but that walks a narrow line heading to persuasion. In For Your Consideration, Guest is directing a Jewish film called Home for Purim. Part of the running joke is that no one really knows what “Purim” is. We go back and forth from filming the movie to backstage to the homes of the stars. Here are people who have fallen on hard times. Everyone remembers their work of twenty years ago and time has not dealt kindly with them. Enter “a rumor” that one of the stars (Catherine O’Hara) is doing Oscar-worthy work. That’s all it takes, folks, and the rumor gathers momentum to include not only her, but also two co-stars, Harry Shearer (playing her husband) and Parker Posey (as her daughter.) The stars appear on talk shows, television programs (Fred Willard is good here) and soon nomination time arrives. What is really going to happen? This is an ensemble cast that probably directed itself. Much of the material may be improvised, but it flows well. Guest plays an on-the-edge director while Bob Balaban and Michael McKean are the writers who flinch at the thought of changing a comma. As the film heads toward completion, it ends up being changed quite a bit, including the title. Alas, this is what happens in Hollywood. Physical appearances change, too, as the stars realize they have let themselves go. Catherine O’Hara’s first appearance after a re-do is a revelation---no one recognizes her---really. The stand-outs are O’Hara as the actress who believes she has another chance, Harry Shearer as an actor who can do just about anything with class, Eugene Levy as the agent no one wants, Fred Willard as the TV host no one wants, Jennifer Coolidge as the producer who is three beats behind everyone, and McKean and Balaban as the writers who are wondering why they ever wrote the script in the first place. _For Your Consideration_ is thought provoking and laugh provoking. Guest and Levy know the business and don’t leave a stone unturned from agents to stars to producers to prying outsiders. It’s all here. Enjoy. Copyright 2006 Marie Asner
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